Posts by marc 9

Apple aptly calls its wireless over-the-ear headphones the AirPods Max – as in, maximum damage to your wallet

These won't be "cool" like AirPods

Standard AirPods are cool because the cool kids can afford them. At this price, AirPods Max will be mainly used by middle-aged project managers, so likely to be very uncool.

Microsoft brings WinUI to desktop apps: It's a landmark for Windows development, but it has taken far too long

Re: What UI framework was used to develop Teams?

I've wondered this. So awfully slow. Seeing as it's almost identical to the web application, I'm guessing it's HTML rendered in a pre-Chromium Edge container. There's no way it would be so consistent with the web app if it wasn't the same codebase.

Yes, your old iPhone is slowing down: iOS hits brakes on CPUs as batteries wear out

Re: This

What's new? Batteries are not user replaceable on £30 Casio watches. I really don't see the issue.

Feature snatcher Microsoft tweaks OneDrive

Re: That's nice*. How do I completely uninstal OneDrive?

But how do I uninstall OneDrive for Business? It's not listed.

Dixons warns of looming Brexit storm cloud amid bumper results

Re: Warranty

I bet you felt good after that.. poor kid was just doing what he's been asked to do.

IBM hopes its tailored Swift will lure you onto BlueMix cloud

Tailored Swift

I see what you did there. This author deserves a bonus :)

Adobe: We REALLY are taking Flash security seriously – honest

I haven't had flash installed for over a year on my Mac. If I come across a web site that requires it, I use the developer menu to switch the user agent to 'iPad', which usually does the trick.

HTML5 vs native: Harry Coder and the mudblood mobile app princes

Re: What???

Agreed, it's a UI layer. Downloading files asynchronously, decompressing them etc. would be native.

Re: An odd change of focus in the article...

Yes the Windows 98 Explorer sidebar was written in HTML. Active Desktop was all about embedded IE.

Firefox reveals new look: rounded rectangles

No combined search/URL

Still no single text box for both search and location - Firefox is the only browser holding out on this now, I much prefer Safari/IE/Chrome from that point of view, though Firefox is still the best all-round performer I find.

EU move to standardise phone chargers is bad news for Apple

Re: Here we go again

My iPad 3 doesn't charge when I connect my old iPod classic connector - it needs more power. Just because these things are all the same shape, it doesn't mean devices won't need to ship with a new connector.

Here we go again

Just as how those useless 'cookie banners' have ruined the web (and haven't helped anyone's privacy) , the EU now want to saddle all our phones with an awful USB connector that always seems to take 3 attempts to connect. Apple already offer a micro-USB adapter that I doubt anybody bothers to use. How is this even a problem? All phones come with a charger. Saying accessories won't work etc is fair enough, but then neither will my apps if I switch from Android to iOS.

No wonder the EU hasn't produced an Apple, a Microsoft or a Google.

Galaxy S4 way faster than iPhone 5: Which?

Real World Usage

I have found Android tends to slow down over time, this is likely to be a software design problem (like the messages app loading all 3,000 of them into memory when I just want to read the latest) - at a guess. Part of me thinks it's probably down to Android running mostly Java software - is geek-bench written in Java, or did they use C/++?

So this will only people who play games, even then the G4 has more pixels to push, so who knows.

Microsoft to unveil new Xbox console on May 21

Always on - obviously, this isn't 1998

@AC

Always on, like your TiVo box? Like your NAS box? Your Nexus 4? iPad? DVD Player? Kindle? Even your Xbox 360 (how the hell do you think it turns on via the controller?)

My Xbox 360 is always online never mind always on (I presume you know the difference) - giving this developers this guarnetee will creative new possibilities for gameplay, who doesn't have an always on connection these days? Really? I mean, really? Not the type of people you'd expect to be buying a brand new games console.

Still, luddites can choose to go and live in a Faraday cage if they wish,

Smartphone users prefer LOVELY apps to fiddly mobe websites

The web will always be 2 steps behind

By its nature, native apps will push new boundaries (the way Flash did) and HTML5 will come along 5-10 years later with an open version. That's what happens when you have the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft all trying to make their platform attract users and developers. How would I crop and compress an image in HTML5 for example? Send push notifications? One day, but by then who knows what native software will be doing that HTML5 can't.

HTML5 also behaves very differently across different mobile platforms and OS versions. The dream of write once run on iPhone and Android hasn't been realised yet, so you end up with something that uses the lowest common denominator in order to work. Yes it costs more, but I unless it's a very simple app, writing 2 apps for each platform will always result in a better end product.

Then there's the connectivity problem - until we have fast internet everywhere, on all our devices, native apps that can download their content will be needed. Can your HTML5 connect to the internet and download the latest content automatically every night?

What about the (very real) question of is JavaScript, a language originally intended for form validation and basic scripting up to the task for building and maintaining large code bases?

Review: Google Nexus 4

No pen?

Shame they didn't include a detachable Pen/stylus, can't argue with the price though.

Mark Zuckerberg doesn't know how to use HTML5

Why try and make HTML do everything?

I have worked with webby tools such as Phone Gap, and Appcelerator but in the end I had to learn Objective-C and go native. I don't regret that. I have total control over the interface, how and when I load resources, and what thread I do processing on. I get errors when I make a typo, and Core Data makes working with massive datasets very easy. If I want scrolling, I don't need to write my own physics or get a framework, if the client asks me to generate a PDF and upload it to a web service, I can. If I suddenly need to play a video on a spinning 3D cube, I can.

In short there are no limits when you go native (except app store restrictions but they affect all apps). HTML5 might be fine for small apps (which arguably should be web sites anyway) but when you are approaching a long-term large project, it's just not there yet, and to be honest I don't see why the two need to compete. The web is a totally different paradigm to native software, any dev who thinks he/she can 'reuse their skills' will be in for a nasty surprise.

Search engines we have known ... before Google crushed them

Anyone remember Northern Light?

It was at www.northernlight.com - that was my search engine of choie cicra 1998

Microsoft shoots Windows Live Messenger, brings in Skype IM

this already happened in windows 8

The messaging app is basically MSN without the bloatedness.

Salesforce CEO Benioff: Win 8 is 'the end of Windows'

Some might say..

He has his head in the clouds.

Carphone Warehouse lauds Nexus 7 while eagerly eying iPad Mini

Re: Tube usage

I too have an iPad and a Nexus 7. As expected the Nexus 7 feels a lot cheaper than the iPad, but that's no surprise since it was. No matter which Android tablet I use I always seem to play 'hunt the power button' for slightly too long. Nothing beats the obviousness of the iPad's home button.

What the Nexus 7 is good for is browsing the web, reading or watching a video when out and about, it fits in my back pocket. Google Now is also very handy, telling me when to leave for meetings etc. I've tried to do some Office word doc editing and quickly gave up. If only the Beeb would release an iPlayer that can download on Android....

Apple iPhone 5 review

It's not about specs!

I remember reading comments on here when the original iPhone was announced claiming how the N95 would walk all over it, because it had a better camera, SD slot, GPS, etc etc. What matters is, how well does the software works with the hardware and online services?

I like the design and will probably getting one. Samsung et al keep making these screens bigger in the way Gillette keep adding more blades to their razors. That's not innovation!

Nokia Lumia 900 WinPho 7 smartphone

Who give's a **** about the number of cores?

Android only needs 4 cores to run fast because it's so slow and bloated - seriously, we use these devices to check Facebook, not to render the next Toy Story.

Windows Phone is more like a sports motorbike, with Android being a big fat, gas guzzeling 4x4. The bike's engine will be far smaller, but it will no doubt accelerate more quickly, and have a higher top speed than the wagon.

We should be judging devices based on how well they perform, not on the numbers.

Also lack of SD card is a GOOD thing. Users don't want to have to decide where to install apps, or even think about that sort of thing. It adds too much unwanted complexity. Microsoft's motto here, quite rightly is KISS - "Keep it simple, stupid".

Death to Office or to Windows - choose wisely, Microsoft

Great article.. but wrong

I did enjoy this article and it raised some interesting questions, but surely if the author's hypothesis is correct then we'd already have seen Macs taking over the enterprise since Office was released for it in 2001 (not forgetting there was Office 98 for classic MacOS and of course the very first version of Office was for Mac).

What's the betting only the 4 core Office products will be available for the iPad (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote) - to get Outlook (that's the crucial business app) and the other myriad of products you'll need a Windows 8 PC. Yes the iPad can access exchange, but can it do all the labels, meeting requests (with room allocation), tasks, out of office replies etc that Outlook does?

Microsoft denies report of Office coming to iPad

What screenshot?

The one I saw was the first screen - could be a fullscreen photo being displayed for all we know.

iOS 5's iMessage chops carrier SMS routing traffic

Use it all the time

I like the fact that it syncs conversations between my iPad and iPod. The abaility to send decent quality photos and videos is nice too. It just proves it's all about ease of use, as Android has had Google Talk built in for years but nobody I know uses it to replace SMS. My phone is Android so I revert to SMS when I'm away from WiFI. I can't see Apple ever release an Android client for iMessage....

BBC testing fix for iPlayer on iPad ... 6 months later

A pointless app anyway

Until it let's you download for offline viewing it's pointless. Any place I am near a decent Wifi connection I am usually near a decent telly.

Tablets will overtake consumer PCs, says Fujitsu CTO

Not so...

Purchased a iPad yesterday and the bloke in the Apple store initialised it for me, meaning I dont have to install iTunes at all. I think iOS 5 will also address this.

Apple MacBook Air 13in Core i5 laptop

Windows

How does Windows play with the power management/? Will the battery still last for a long time when it's in sleep mode? That's one thing I wish my (otherwise excellent) Acer would do.

Angry Birds, other iPhone games shotgunned by Lodsys

Who patented the Abacus?

Because that's where this all started.

Facebook's 'awesome' plan to hook up with Skype?

On your phone?

If the Facebook app on my phone suddenly sprouted a "Call" button (that was free, using Skype) I can see the benefit. A genuinely useful feature.

Microsoft Visual Studio to end dev and ops 'ping pong'

I like VS

After having to use Xcode and Eclipse I lot recently, I really miss Visual Studio. I am just so much more productive in it.

Comet owner boosted by closure rumours

Shame...

I bought a nice little mid range Acer laptop from their web site last year.. delivered quickly and at a decent price (much better than the equivalent spec at dabs or ebuyer). Hope they will at least keep the web site going.

Top Ten Retro PC Games

I would include Blade Runner

A great adventure game by Westwood Studios. Managed to add to the world of the film in a way that I've not seen since. Great game.

Apple bans geo loco ads on iPhone, iPad*

It'll be because of battery

The GPS receiver on the iPhone seems to eat a lot of battery life, I wouldn't be happy with an application that drained my battery just so it could show me an ad! Seeing as battery life is the the reason they give for now allowing multitasking, I'd hazard a guess that it's the same reason here.

Microsoft urges Flash makers to pay fat dollar for exFAT format

Marc

Does the Xbox 360 support exFAT? Last time I checked it didn't support NTFS.

Microsoft counters Windows 7 upgrade hack advice

Full Version was cheaper than Upgrade

The full version of Win7 Pro was 3p cheaper than the upgrade version in my local PC World :)

Sky Player hits Xbox 360

What a shame...

Being able to watch an individual football match or say just the shows I like (Waiting for 24 season 7 to come out on DVD) would have been great. What stops me for paying for Sky is that in my opinion, 99% of it is rubbish. This could have been so good.

Gmail in massive web outage

But the 'cloud' is the future!!!

Google struggling to cope me thinks.

O2 does Apple-flavour customer service

It's the iPhone...

I have an iPhone 3GS on 02. I live with someone who has a Nokia 5800 02. Their phone can have full 3G signal while my iPhone has one bar and intermittently switches to standard GPRS. The iPhone doesn't seem to have a very good 3G radio. I still wouldn't swap any day, the Nokia's interface is laughable. But the iPhone may be to blame when it comes to network issues.

Leo Laporte from the podcast This Week In Tech said he experienced unexpected data changes with AT&T while in China - don't know how widespread that is, but there seems to be some sort of issue with the amount of data the iPhone uses, or reports that it has used.

Firefox 3.7 swivels glassy eye

@Walt Leipold

@Walt Leipold

Chrome doesn't have a menu bar either! IE4 for you!

Nokia sees sales, shipments and profits slide

I said goodbye to Nokia

I've used a Nokia of various types since 2001, but when my second N95 broke with the same fault, I swore I'd never use them again. So now I have an iPhone, and I'm not regretting it.

They have lost the plot with quality assurance. On a plus side, their 5800 gets much better 3G signal than my iPhone 3G S - so they can make decent radio chips still. Shame about everything else.

Unlock your iPhone, miss your messages

What about roaming?

When roaming a different network is used... will Push work?

Opera to take web back to the old days

ICQ 99b did this

Back in the day, IIRC, the bloatware that was ICQ had it's own web server, I'm sure of it.

Ex-Borland's Delphi owner re-ignites cross-platform dream

Rad Studio is too buggy

Rad Studio is too buggy.. Visual Studio is like a dream when compared to Rad Studio. Too expensive and there's no free versions, unlike Netbeans, Ellipse and Visual Studio so how will the newcomers get into it?

Windows 7 to push up netbook prices

Is Windows 7 better than XP? Yes... so that's why it costs more

Windows 7 is far superior to XP and Linux (as a consumer OS). You get what you pay for. End of.

EC rejects Microsoft's browser promises

Another EU power trip

Firefox has demonstrated that there is competition in the browser market. Google, a search engine used by the vast majority of internet users, prominently displays a chrome icon on its home page. There isn't much different to Microsoft prominently displaying an IE icon on their Windows desktop.

As for opera, there's a reason why no one uses that browser, it's crap!